A Guide to Preparing Songs - i.e. What do I do in the Practice Room?

Overview

• Initial stage – become familiar with it by playing on piano, listening to reputable recordings, hearing it in live performance
• Research relating to composer, musical era, poet, text (Song Profile Research)
• Textual concerns of accurate word meanings, correct pronunciation, derivation of text, characterization or meaning (hmm, still sounds like a Song Profile to me!!!)

Component analysis (break the task into manageable sections)

Text

Read it multiple times for:

• Pronunciation
• Inflection
• Articulation
• Phrasing
• Meaning

Do before putting it to rhythm!

Rhythm, meter, tempo

• Check time signature and pulse/measure
• Clap rhythm patterns until mastered
• Begin as slowly as it takes for no mistakes and then move up to tempo

Melody

• Key signature -check them for changes
• Learn pitches by playing on piano or mentally sight-singing - i.e. DO NOT SING OUT LOUD YET
• Avoid vocalization until pitch and rhythm learned

Form

• Identify underlying structure (binary, ternary, da capo, through-composed, etc)
• Organizes for learning

Voice

• Sing the song with piano
• Select specific or use random vowels
• Syllabic vowels (i.e. DO NOT SING THE CONSONANTS) of text
• Actual text
   

Harmony

• Listen to piano accompaniment
• Notice significant harmonic developments as related to text AND melody

Dynamics and musical articulation

• Composer’s or editor’s markings

Component synthesis and memorization

• Integration of all the components
• Involves repeated work with collaborative pianist
• Memorization allows for work on evolving an interpretation